I’m gathering the parts to make the DIY RC case. The bottoms are on order and we should have them soon. We have Hitec joysticks in stock, and we have the popular 3 axis joysticks on order. I am looking for feedback on the custom top panels as to what I should support. Currently the list looks like this.
]Dual 2 axis precision Hitec joysticks or a combination of 2 axis, 3 axis, or 3 axis with switch, china joysticks./:m] ]Two or three linear sliders./:m] ]16 button keypad./:m] ]Array of 8 toggle switches. /:m] ]Matrix Orbital MOS-AL162 serial display./:m] ]Sparkfun LCD-08537 OLED display./:m]
The question is which combination of these should I put on the panels. I will post some images of what I have put together so far.
You’re missing the 4 push buttons to access the menu (Up, Down, Esc, Enter). I finally added them on the remote and they work brilliant! In combination with the display they allow us to change settings and a lot of options. This is a must if you ask me
My question is; What electronics are you planning to use? The amount of controls that can be added to the remote strongly depends on the amount of I/O that is available.
My ideal remote would have:
2x 4 functional joysticks (6 analog inputs, digital combined with button matrix)
3x sliders (3 analog inputs)
1x display (1 digital output)
1x XBEE (2 digital I/O)
1x Hex Keypad (8 digital I/O)
1x speaker
4x menu/navigation buttons (combined with keypad = 1 digital I/O)
Note: We added 1 I/O (row) to the matrix to get a 4x5 matrix for the menu buttons, If we add an extra column we have 5 more button inputs available. 2 can be used for the buttons on the joystick, 3 can be used for switches?
This makes a total of:
9 analog inputs
10 digital inputs
1 digital/UART for the display
2 digital/UART for XBEE
1 digital for speaker (probably onboard?)
Yep with the current displays need some form of menu navigation keys. The other option I have thought about, but have nothing for, is for an OLED display with touch screen capability, like: sparkfun.com/products/10089
Xan’s list is good, but some displays like OLED need 2 IO’s.
As for toggle switches, I can see where they are useful, but I also think some momentary switches would come in handy as well, for things like fire…
Hi guys thanks for the feedback. I have made some diagrams as a place to start. The goal is to find a manageable variety for a lower end, BA Pro or Botboarduino, and a higher end for the mega.
Yep the top one and the bottom ones look somewhat familiar to me
The one thing I wonder about if it would make sense to change from the 16x2 display to a 20x2 or a x4 display. Have not looked into the cost difference and if this gets you up to the OLED that I am using…
They look very interesting. Maybe at some point may have to try a few more of the different configurations. The Multi-slider could be interesting. Will be fun to see where the processor board and battery would fit inside the case. I find it already a very tight fit with the current one I am playing with. I believe the newer boxes are slightly deeper, which will help.
Hi Jim, Looked some more at the Larger 4Dsystem display (sparkfun.com/datasheets/LCD/ … S-rev3.pdf). The one that Sparkfun carries appears to be in portrait mode. That is, it’s display is 240x320 pixels and it’s display area is about: 61.1mmx77.5mm or 2.4"x3"…
May have to order one to try it out. But both Sparkfun and RobotShop appear to be out of them…
Really? does it say it’s a vertical format? Normally for the 320 x 240 APA graphics displays I’ve used, they’re presumed horizontal format. But you send the “dots” anyway, so it can be used however you want. The font usually maps better in the horz format.
The Spec actually says it is 240x320… Will know more later as I ordered one from robotshop, that shipped this morning. However if it is like my last shipment from them, it will probably take 10-14 days to get to me.
As for text, if you go with one of their larger built-in fonts (8x12) you will have something like 26+ lines 30 characters. They also appear to have a 12x16 font, which would give you 20 lines of 20 characters, which ain’t bad.
Not sure what I will do with this display. Maybe try another version of the remote?
I need to get back to playing with the hardware/software with the other display. Been busy with other projects/toys, like ipad2 (may look about using this as a remote?) and on a less fun, but probably more needed front, just finished assembling a bowflex…
Looks interesting for that price. I like also that can be controlled by I2C, which could be an interesting thing to try to minimize bit bang data corruption with external interrupts. But this would require two IO pins. But could potentially use the built in 16 button keypad support that the display controller supports.
Don’t know much about these, but my quick look at them gives me the impression is that the price is pretty good, assuming you buy 10 or more.
It looks like you can either use them in parallel mode with either 4 or 8 bits, or in a clocked serial mode. I have not looked yet at what baud rate the clocked serial can support, but might be nice as on a BAP it may help with bit bang serial being screwed up by interrupts…
I don’t think the graphics are anything near as nice as 4D systems, but again it is half the price of the cheapest of those…
More details on their WIKI… seeedstudio.com/wiki/2.8%27%27_TFT_Touch_Shield Looks like a slightly cheaper than the 4D systems one I am using, but looks like it takes up more resources of the board…
I’m specifically looking for an economical text or graphic display that is larger than 2 x 16, and the small oled. I don’t need touch screen, just a simple nice bright display.
Also been thinking of a small board with I2C interface, analog to digital converter 12 or 16 channels, 4 x 6 row column switch or keypad, 8 to 16 LED outputs. Get all the stuff wired easily with servo style plugs. Control can be anything that can do I2C. The controller would do the display directly. Would make it fall down easy.
Nice found Jim.
I saw that they also sell color display’s for a reasonable price. It has a higher resolution and is full color. But it looks that it will need a driver and is harder to talk to. It would be cool to have an color display since it looks more “2011”. But then again, besides coolness it would not directly add functionality. So the display you found will suit the job.
I went ahead and ordered some of the displays. A little research tells me this display has more resolution then the one used in the DX6i radio, and the DX6i doesn’t even have a backlight!
I think the DX6i uses an Atmel AVR Mega128L processor. If we toss an arduino on it it’ll rock.
I intend to make an I/O expansion board. The idea is to integrate all of the I/O needed into a simple and easy to access format.
I2C - 16 channel A to D
I2C - 16 outputs for LEDs
I2C - 4x5 keypad encoder
Xbee socket
The display is already clocked serial. Maybe add an Arduino mini socket, or a BAP socket. This means the board can be made without a processor, which makes it really inexpensive. I have to source the I2C peripherals, I’m assuming they exist. Fitting an Arduino Mega in there just for more analog seams to be overkill. Now the questions…
Any technical things I’m overlooking?
Does the Mega328 have the horsepower. I think it should.
Feedback???
Sounds very interesting. I guess the other thing may be some switch inputs. That is for example the 4 function joysticks have a button on top. Would be nice to plug it into something.
The Arduino megas add both more AtoD inputs, and also more usarts. The question will be do you need either of these for that? If so could probably add some I2C USart…
Atmega 328 should have plenty to run it, especially if most stuff is offloaded to board. Question will be how is the XBee integrated? Does the board handle it? or does the main processor…
Will think more about it and let you know if I think of anything else.
Fitting an Arduino Mega in there just for more analog seams to be overkill. Now the questions…